“Very well,” said Sir Ector, “I will do so, though it will, I think, be to thy very great discomfort.”

[Sidenote:  Sir Ector essays battle with the sable knight] With that he came quickly out from the ford, the water whereof was all broken and churned into foam at his passing, and straightway he cast aside his spear and drew his sword and, driving against that sable knight, he smote him such a buffet that his horse turned twice about.

“Ha,” said the black knight, “that is the best blow that ever I had struck me in all of my life.”  Therewith he rushed upon Sir Ector, and without using a weapon of any sort he catched him about the body, underneath the arms, and dragged him clean out of his saddle, and flung him across the horn of his own saddle.  Thereupon, having accomplished this marvellous feat, and with Sir Ector still across his saddle-bow, he rode up unto his castle, nor stopped until he had reached the court-yard of the keep.  There he set Sir Ector down upon the stone pavement.  Then he said:  “Messire, thou hast done to me this day what no other knight hath ever done to me before, wherefore, if thou wilt promise to be my man from henceforth, I will let thee go free and give thee great rewards for thy services as well.”

But Sir Ector was filled very full of shame, wherefore he cried out fiercely, “Rather would I lie within a prison all my life than serve so catiff a knight as thou, who darest to treat other knights as thou hast just now treated me.”

“Well,” said the black knight very grimly, “thou shalt have thy choice.”  Therewith he gave certain orders, whereupon a great many fierce fellows set upon Sir Ector and stripped him of all his armor, and immediately haled him off, half-naked, to that dungeon aforementioned.

[Sidenote:  The sable knight makes prisoner of Sir Ector] There he found many knights of King Arthur’s court, and several of the Round Table, all of whom he knew, and when they beheld Sir Ector flung in unto them in that fashion they lifted up their voices in great lamentation that he should have been added to their number, instead of freeing them from their dolorous and pitiable case.  “Alas,” said they, “there is no knight alive may free us from this dungeon, unless it be Sir Launcelot.  For this Sir Turquine is, certes, the greatest knight in all the world, unless it be Sir Launcelot.”

[Illustration:  Queen Morgana appears unto Sir Launcelot]

Chapter Third

How Sir Launcelot was Found in a Sleep by Queen Morgana le Fay and Three Other Queens who were with Her, and How He was Taken to a Castle of Queen Morgana’s and of What Befell Him There.